Editorial: Rollover rankings a big help

Friday, Jan. 12, 2001 | 9:44 a.m.

For the first time ever the federal government has released rollover ratings for vehicles. It wasn't too surprising that those performing the best were automobiles and those performing the worst were sport utility vehicles. Despite their sleek look, most SUVs really are nothing more than trucks that have been gussied up. With few exceptions, SUVs are built on a pick-up truck frame. SUVs, like their pick-up truck cousins, have a high center of gravity, making them more prone to roll over than automobiles.

SUVs have become extremely popular, especially with families, who believe their larger size makes them safer if they're involved in an accident with a car. But studies have shown that when there is a rollover, there can be tragic consequences for SUV drivers. For instance, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which assigned the rollover ratings, noted that about 23 percent of car occupant deaths were because the vehicles they were in had rolled over. The percentage rose dramatically, however, when SUVs were examined. More than 60 percent of the SUV occupants who were killed in 1999 had died during rollover accidents.

The obvious way to make a vehicle less prone to tip is to build it so that it doesn't sit as high off the ground. The downside to such an alteration is that it diminishes an SUV's off-road capabilities. But since SUVs now are used to shuttle kids to soccer practice or ferry groceries home from the supermarkets, such a redesign likely wouldn't cause too much heartburn for potential buyers. Still, the imposition of a government-mandated, cookie-cutter design to make SUVs safer probably wouldn't be greeted warmly by the public. It is promising, then, that the government is handing out grades about the safeness of these vehicles, arming customers with information they need to make an intelligent decision.

The market already appears to be responding to consumer concerns: Ford recently announced new safety features for its 2002 Explorers. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the auto industry responds to the rollover ratings, an important source of consumer-protection information.